ABSTRACT
Background: Cervical cancer and human immunodeficiency virus are diseases of public health concern as they both have debilitating effects on human health. Human immunodeficiency virus worsens the carcinogenicity of HPV, thereby elevating the risk of cervical cancer. A previous study conducted at our center two decades ago reported a low prevalence of HIV among cervical cancer patients.
Objective: This study is aimed at determining the current prevalence of HIV among patients with cervical cancer presenting for radiation treatment and comparing it with our previous findings 20 years earlier in order to assess changes in epidemiological trends.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of patients with histologic diagnosis of cervical cancer seen between 2017 and 2019 was carried out. HIV statuses were determined using the Determine test kit for screening and Western blot for confirmation, and data was analyzed using appropriate statistical methods including the chi-square test for categorical variables and t-tests for continuous variables. P-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results: A total of 156 patients were seen with a mean age of 54.9± 11.4 years (range from 33-90 years). The prevalence of HIV was found to be 6.4%, slightly higher than our previous finding with prevalence of 2.7%. The HIV positive patients were younger (mean age 44.7 ± 6 years) than the HIV negative patients (55.14 ± 10.84 years) by about 10 years which was statistically significant (p=0.003). Most of the patients presented with an advanced disease, with 50% of the patients presenting with stage III disease, while 10% had stage IV disease. The HIV positive patients presented with more early stage (Stages I and II) diseases (60%). Squamous cell carcinoma was the most common histological type accounting for 89.7%
Conclusion: As a follow up study, it appears that not much has changed from our previous findings as there is a slight increase in prevalence of HIV amongst cervical cancer patients compared to data from two decades ago, though overall burden is relatively still low in our study population. The earlier age of diagnosis observed in HIV-positive individuals suggests evolving epidemiologial pattern that warrants public health attention.
Keywords: AIDS; Cervical cancer; HIV Prevalence.